New Jersey, Maryland Compressor Stations Protested

Demonstrations occur over two-week span

Published: 12/02/2013 08:49 AM

Compressor stations don’t seem to be getting much love in select towns across the United States, as the public continues to demonstrate against pipeline infrastructure.

On Nov. 23, about 100 people protested the almost-completed natural gas compressor station on Eagle Rock Avenue in Roseland, New Jersey. Williams/Transco is building the 25,000 hp (18,642 kW) station in order to double the pressure of natural gas transported along the Eastern Seaboard through an existing pipeline.

The Roseland protesters were concerned about the station’s location, which is across from the Essex County Environmental Center, down the street from the 360-apartment Nob Hill complex and next to a Public Service Electric and Gas Co. power station. Local and state officials have also questioned the safety of the station.

A few days earlier at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, local and state environmental activists, along with 150 residents protested natural gas projects in Frederick County and at Cove Point, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay.

The activists were part of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, which traveled to nine cities across Maryland to oppose Dominion Resources’ plan to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at its Cove Point LNG import terminal. The group was concerned that the project is tied to the construction of a gas compressor station in Myersville, Maryland. A Dominion spokesperson said the two projects were unrelated.